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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22606621">Stories of the Second Self: Deal of the Artless</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner'>John_Steiner</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Alter Idem [92]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Urban Fantasy - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 16:29:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,954</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22606621</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ellsa Laqouis is sent out to close a deal on Papa Delane Henry's behalf, however, one of the people she meets is more nervous than typical for a street meeting with a vampire. One way of the other, Papa Henry's wishes would be carried out.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Alter Idem [92]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Stories of the Second Self: Deal of the Artless</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Where the fuck is she?" Ellsa Laqouis heard ahead of her in the downtown alley.</p><p>Ellsa had crept down the brick wall in dark gray yoga pants and skintight tank top under a hoodie with her shoes in the pockets of the hoodie. Barefoot, she paced right up behind the Fae and human, and just stood with her arms folded.</p><p>The human noticed her first and jumped. "Fuck!"</p><p>The Fae's startled cry was no less worth it. "Jesus, what's with you people?"</p><p>Grinning, Ellsa relayed Papa Henry's demand. "Alright, boys let's see them."</p><p>"Yeah," the visibly uncomfortable human said, and pulled a velvet sack with draw string out of his coat. "Got the goods right here."</p><p>"Wait," the shorter Fae with two-point antlers stopped the human there with a hand to his chest, and then turned to Ellsa. "Let's see the money first."</p><p>"Really?" a disappointed Ellsa replied, "You're going to play up some stupid movie scene? Papa Henry will take offense at your doubt. When he says he'll negotiate a fair price the money is as good as in your hands."</p><p>"Take it easy, Jessie," the human said to the Fae, and then reached into the sack to pull out a few crystals. "Here 'ya go."</p><p>Plucking one up into her fingers, Ellsa admired is in the nighttime light that to her was ample, especially with the two men's body heat refracting through it. This was her first job for Papa Delane Henry after he sponsored her into a vampire.</p><p>The night's chill had no affect on Ellsa, and she was as fearless being out at night as ever. However, she noticed that the human's body heat was building in a specific pattern around his face. It took Ellsa a moment to realize it was anxiety she was seeing.</p><p>"Why's Papa Henry so interested in healing crystals all of a sudden?" Jessie, the Fae asked. "I thought he only worked in voodoo, not new age magic."</p><p>"He's a man of many talents and aptitudes," Ellsa answered, not tearing her eyes away from the way the crystal glistened in her hand. "Alright, hand me another one."</p><p>"You gonna inspect them all one by one?" the human doubted. "What's your magical training anyway?"</p><p>"Couple spells here 'n there," Ellsa replied, as she raised the next stone to inspect. "Nothing major. Not my forte, really."</p><p>"Then, what's with inspecting the crystals?" Jessie asked.</p><p>"Ask your friend here." Ellsa turned her attention squarely at the human, despite addressing Jessie. "He seems awfully nervous."</p><p>"Erik, what's going on?" Jessie turned to the human with growing concern.</p><p>Rather than saying anything, Erik the human whipped out a gnarled branch covered with grooves in random patterns. Ellsa reacted, but not before the flash of blue fire ignited before her face.</p><p>Two pairs of footsteps pounded away, and a hissing crackle made Ellsa aware that her hoodie was burning. She quickly shredded it when ripping it off and throwing it down. It took longer for her to see again after the blinding flash. The men had fled.</p><p>Clearly, neither were good at this, Ellsa knew as she stepped out from the alley to see them running down the street. However, Delane's instructions were to not make a scene in Silverton. With that in mind, Ellsa scaled the building corner and trotted along the roof instead.</p><p>Approaching the edge of the store, Ellsa built up into a sprint and leapt over an intersection onto the top of a liquor store on the opposite adjoining street corner. Crossing other rooftops was more of a light hop for Ellsa who, while no faster on foot than the two men, needn't huff for breath.</p><p>True to amateurish form, they bolted straight to the parking lot where they'd left their car. Erik fumbled with his electronic door locks, as Jessie bid him to hurry. However, neither knew that it was no good.</p><p>In another powerful bound, Ellsa Laqouis soared through the air to land in front of the car, just as Erik and Jessie got in. Erik was busy with the ignition, when Ellsa noticed a nearby cinder block and grabbed it. Next, she reached under the front of the car and pulled up from a weightlifting crouch.</p><p>After sliding the cinder block under the car, Ellsa just let vehicle drop onto it, and the two men rocked in their seats. Jessie's Antlers caught in the car's visor, which made Ellsa chuckle while she stepped around to the driver side.</p><p>Erik locked his door, just as Ellsa grabbed the handle, but she ripped up hard anyway and tore the handle off clean. After, she pulled out a multi-tool and opened it for the pliers. She worked at the inside of the door, until the lock gave and the door opened.</p><p>Yet again, the wormwood wand was thrust at her, but this time Ellsa was ready and wrapped her firm cold hand around Erik's to turn the weapon up at the car ceiling. Erik dared not re-cast the spell, and to be sure, Ellsa squeezed hard to hear many bones in his hand snap.</p><p>Crying out, Erik thrashed and pulled back. Already irritated, Ellsa pulled him from the car, threw him back against it, and latched her hand over his mouth. "Shhh...."</p><p>Clearly terrified, Erik struggled, though weakly from the agony from his hand. Most vampires who had spontaneously turned struggled to recognize fear in others, but Ellsa knew it when she saw it.</p><p>Forcing Erik's head to the side, Ellsa cleared the way to his carotid arteries. Movies made it look easy and casual, but a human proportioned mouth and lips made biting the neck hard and required exacting position. She'd never fed off someone directly before. While the splash of blood in her face felt exquisite, Ellsa knew she'd need more practice to avoid a huge mess and an easy evidentiary trail to follow.</p><p>Erik's blood warmed Ellsa's throat going down, and she gulped eagerly while hearing Jessie slowing getting out of the passenger door. Taking her fill from Erik, she let his quivering form drop to the parking lot asphalt. In another jump, Ellsa cleared the car and landed in front of Jessie.</p><p>The Fae immediately froze and threw up his hands. "Fuck, I swear I had no idea what he was planning!"</p><p>"Oh, I believe you," Ellsa accepted, though grabbed the front of Jessie's coat to slam him against the car as with Erik.</p><p>"Really, just take the shit," Jessie pleaded loudly, waving his hands at her. "I won't say shit!"</p><p>"I let Erik off easy because he didn't know Papa Henry's rules," Ellsa warned.</p><p>"Easy!" Jessie repeated and looked over. "'Dude's dead. How's that easy?"</p><p>"Because he's merely dead," Ellsa clarified, "You know what I mean."</p><p>"Look, I would never fuck over Papa Henry," Jessie begged, "I don't know why Erik pulled that shit."</p><p>"Do you know anything about the wand he used?" Ellsa seethed, leering at Jessie with her solid black eyes and menacing hooked teeth.</p><p>"I ain't seen that shit before," Jessie insisted, "Yasmin's got a huge stash of nature magic shit like that."</p><p>"You go to her," Ellsa hissed from tight lips, and thumped Jessie against the car for effect. "You tell her this isn't over."</p><p>"Thank you," Jessie heaved with relief and sagged in her grip. "Yeah, I'm gone!"</p><p>Letting Jessie go, Ellsa enjoyed watching and listening to his panicked clopping of cloven hooves. Being a Luc Fae, the junior-most in the Fae caste system, Jessie was a spry one. He was agile enough dodge potholes in the road and trash on the sidewalk.</p><p>Walking around to the driver side of the car again, Ellsa noticed that Erik had bled out and died. "Ahh, shit."</p><p>Killing him wasn't the problem, Ellsa rued, but cleaning the scene would take awhile. Fortunately, her car wasn't far and she'd brought ample cleaning supplies just in case. And, as per Delane's instructions, she had the crystals that Walter Kovich said were needed for writing glyphs of power.</p><p>Ellsa Laqouis wrapped Erik's body in drop plastic, soaked up the blood wearing gloves, wiped the car down, and washed away a mix of blood and bleach with a portable power sprayer. After, she easily shouldered Erik's body back the trunk of her car and stuffed him in deftly. That was something Ellsa had a practiced hand in doing.</p><p>Getting in, Ellsa drove back to Delane's hotel. Driving around back, she parked and got out while pointing behind her to the trunk. Several people were milling around being casual, but they were in fact on standby for guarding the back entrance. A couple of them went to Ellsa's car and went to work on Pulling the body out.</p><p>Ellsa went down a short set of cement stairs to the back door. She knocked once, and dragged the point of contact down the door to a practiced length. On its own, the door opened. Entering an apparently abandoned concrete room with litter on the floor and a single cruddy light bulb offering the light like stale urine.</p><p>However, the iron grate in the middle of the floor was free of grime and just a coating of rust. Ellsa lifted it herself, and climbed down placing the grate back as she did. The basement hall gradually improved in upkeep, as Ellsa walked along it to the door at the very end.</p><p>Others were required to knock, even Delane's top security guard werewolf from Arkansas, but Ellsa was free to open the door without warning. Inside, spanned a room decorated in Tolkien themes, with landscape paintings dutifully replicated from the books. However, the furniture was straight out of a noir film, and ballroom chandeliers hung from a ceiling painted to perfectly replicated a cloudless starry sky far from any city lights.</p><p>At the front of the room rose Delane's iron throne with a place at the back reserved for one particular skull that the Bokor, real estate mogul, and underworld boss had yet to score for his collection.</p><p>Delane wasn't seated in the throne, rather he exited from one of the side rooms wearing his usual tailored suit and gold-capped dreadlocks. "How much did they ask?"</p><p>"Free, after I dealt with the asshole trying to light my ass on fire." Ellsa tossed the velvet sack.</p><p>Delane had snatched the sack out of the air, and inspected the bag itself before taking out any crystals. "Flare for the dramatic. It's too bad. I would've enjoyed dungeon-mastering this guy in a D&amp;D campaign, maybe one of the Toril or Krynn maps."</p><p>Ellsa knew next to nothing about Dungeons and Dragons, but Delane was an avid fanatic as were a few others in his Chapter. Bokors of other voodoo Chapters tolerated it, because of Delane's magical power and influence reached even further than just the city.</p><p>"His partner is currently relaying your word to this Yasmin," Ellsa informed Delane.</p><p>"Good, good," the vampire Bokor replied, as he poured a couple crystals out to examine. "Hmm, everything he said they were. Much approve."</p><p>"Do you think Walter will try to pull something?" Ellsa wondered, suspecting that the high-caste Fae elder punk was just stringing them all along.</p><p>"Oh, I'm sure he will," Delane answered, and put the crystals back. "However, I won't hold it against him. I've already decided to give him his life back, whether he stays under my employ or not."</p><p>"'Makes sense," Ellsa agreed with Delane's assessment. "He's good at magic, but the life would kill him if he tried to get into our business."</p><p>"And now I can begin to unravel Yasmin's secrets," Delane delighted, as he walked out of the room with the sack in hand.</p>
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